Architecting Affordable Mass

Abstract

The U.S. guided munitions enterprise faces critical production and surge limitations, a significant vulnerability in the context of industrial-scale warfare and strategic competition. While current efforts to ramp production through larger budgets and supply chain investments are underway, these solutions are often slow and capital-intensive. They are further hampered by a consolidated industrial base, high barriers to entry, and boom-and-bust demand cycles that discourage investment. This paper examines how the synergy between two key initiatives—affordable mass programs and Modular Open System Approaches (MOSA)—can address these challenges by fostering production adaptability. Affordable mass programs leverage flexible requirements and commercial technologies to boost producibility and lower unit costs. In parallel, MOSA uses government-defined open architectures to lower barriers to entry, sustain competition, and speed innovation. This paper draws from interviews regarding pathfinding munitions and adjacent systems to draw lessons on achieving production capacity and surge capability. The paper identifies seven categories of enablers: (1) enhance module competition, (2) promote reuse, (3) modularize in-service, (4) commoditize modules, (5) sustain markets, (6) sustain system competition, and (7) acquire mobilization options. The paper explores how these enablers interact and suggests options to scale the approaches of pathfinder programs.